ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo wrote:
Let's say the Mars Project is a raving success and we see this planet become earth like, as in oceans, land, oxygen atmosphere, moderate temperatures that can sustain life. Who will get to decide what lives on Mars and where? Will it become another Earth or some elite place where only certain people are allowed in based on certain character traits or beliefs? What about animal life on Mars? Will the only ones who make it there be the ones used to feed humans? Can a cock roach survive the journey to Mars thus spreading the species there? What about spores of mold or little bits of pollen hitching a ride aboard the space vessel?
There are a lot of implications.
Even while terraforming, who decides what plants or is it going to be a smorgasbord?
Don't hold you breath till all that happens.
1. We do not a decent propulsion system for making long journeys in space
2. We do not have a fraction of the technology needed to terraform Mars. And even we we did, it is futile because Mars no longer has a magnetic field so solar radiation will blast any atmosphere that is produced by terraforming.
We could build habitats on Mars and even do some agriculture in sheltered habitats using artificial light with the solar spectrum. Earth plants will love it. The best we will ever do is build permanent habitats on Mars which will give us a good base for future mining of the asteroid belt.
But until we can cut down the transit time to under a month, send people to Mars is a suicide journey. The ten month ride in vessels using current technology when Mars and Earth are in conjunction will mean exposure of the crews to cosmic radiation which will cook them right a proper. Until we get propulsion technology that can move properly shielded space craft rapidly a trip to Mars is a foolish undertaking. And fatal too.
ruveyn